The loss of free-flowing rivers has posed advert impacts on freshwater biodiversity worldwide—and more than 3,400 hydropower plants with over one megawatt design capacity are either planned or under construction, leading to further reduced river connectivity. A study led by researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) shows: if all the proposed dams were built, 19 percent of free-flowing rivers that are longer than 500 km and inhabited by freshwater megafauna will lose their free-flowing status. The study also finds that freshwater megafauna diversity is higher in future fragmented free-flowing rivers than in rivers that would remain free-flowing in the future or that are already fragmented.
Click here for original story, Large aquatic animals are at risk due to the loss of free-flowing rivers
Source: Phys.org